How beneficial is it to attend the orientation in April?

My son is at the prep school but I know several kids that have appointments and they are wondering if it would be a huge benefit for them to attend the orientations in April. Some of them will be traveling from a great distance and are concerned about cost of the trip.

The reason why I mentioned my son is at the prep school is because I am out of the loop!

Is the orientation very similar to a campus visit or will the appointees be filling out forms, etc?

if he's at the prep school on base (like i attended 2 years ago) he doesn't need to go to orientation... he's already ahead of his fellow classmates coming in June. Plus, they will tell him all about the academy all throughout the prep school year.

As for his friends, i definitely recommend they go to orientation to get well prepared for I-day.. unless your son can give them the necessary information. But as a direct entry appointee i definitely recommend going.

Well they will be fine not going to orientation because there are several appointees who don't go so that tells me there probably isn't anything during orientation that would make it mandatory to attend.

plus orientation starts the week after we get back from spring break, which is the week after we got recognized, so the entire wing is really happy. so it's not neccesarily the most...accurate... portrayal of most of 4dig year. at the same time though it at least gave me something to look forward to because i knew how much better life gets after recognition. just realize most of the year's not like that.

I personally found it very beneficial because I had a chance to sit in the classes. Although the Academy experience itself is something unique and, as btown13 said, we four digs are all insanely happy from recognition and therefore you won't really see that unique lifestyle to the most accurate portrayal, I would still go.

The best thing for me was getting to have a couple people I knew at the Academy when I got here from having met them at Orientation and for knowing where my mailbox was (helpful during basic!) and for knowing what sort of experience to expect in the classrooms. It was a really good experience for me overall.